"With his familiar deftness and depth, James Carroll weaves a profound and compelling novel from diverse but overlapping narrative strands. From the conversations between a Catholic priest and a French Jewish woman in mid-twentieth century New York to the brutality of Nazi-occupied Paris to the great medieval love story of Abelard and Heloïse, The Cloister illuminates life's most vital questions and proposes inspiring, radical, and timely answers." (Claire Messud, New York Times best-selling author of The Burning Girl and The Emperor’s Children)

"James Carroll has written an enlightening, vitally important book, a necessity for our time." (Maxine Hong Kingston, author of I Love a Broad Margin to My Life)

"I didn’t know I needed this novel until I read it. As unflinching about the Holocaust as it is about the Crusades, The Cloister is a fearless exploration of the violent foundations on which our own historical inheritance rests. And like all the best fiction, it commandeers the reader’s heart." (Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink)

"Fascinating in its evocation of the twelfth-century Catholic Church in France, this lavishly detailed historical novel serves as an education in historical philosophy, a poignant tale of devoted love, and a portrait of a postwar human crisis influenced heavily by both.... This is definitely a thought-provoking book." (Booklist)

"Carroll blends his well-aired interests in history, theology, and literary fiction in this deftly told story that partakes richly of all.... A rich, literate tale well told." (Kirkus Reviews)

"This is a wonderful novel, and it's wonder-filled. James Carroll brings the twelfth-century lovers, Abelard and Heloïse, blazingly back to life, and he does so through the medium of a New York priest and a Parisian Jew. The present and the past illuminate each other, and the startling mysteries of prejudice, brutality, and love are made doubly vivid here. Like All the Light You Cannot See, The Cloister is a book of gravity and consequence that makes you need to turn and turn the page." (Nicholas Delbanco, author of Curiouser and Curiouser: Essays)